trying to determine where we
were gonna go. Rob said something to me last
Sunday, made this statement. How are you gonna decide on just
two Psalms to preach through? Psalm has 150 chapters, as you
know, and I realized, well, this is a good opportunity to maybe
preach a Wednesday night on a book as well. So we're in Psalm 23.
I've titled this message, Jehovah Is, and the Lord's enabled us
to discover that there is eight names of Jehovah in Psalm 23. I'm gonna read this to us again,
even though I've already read it once, but it says, the Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth
my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. I love the ETHs on the
end of these. He maketh, he restoreth, he leadeth,
and he does this in the paths of righteousness for his namesake.
He tells us the reason. Our comfort is found in verse
four as well. He says, yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Surely, truly, goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. First name that we see of the
Lord. The Lord is L, capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D. And that means Jehovah. And that's
why I've titled Jehovah is. And David says, Jehovah is my
shepherd. Jehovah-rah-ah. Jehovah-rah-ah. R-A-H. The Lord is my shepherd. What does a shepherd do? In Isaiah
chapter 40, He tells us that he shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry
them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are young. So
he shall gather them, he shall feed them, he shall carry them,
and he shall gently lead them. A shepherd provides, a shepherd
protects, a shepherd feeds and gathers, he leads, he carries,
he nurtures. A shepherd does all these things
to his sheep. I wrote down in my notes to remind
us that sheep are stupid. Did you know that? They're the
dumbest animal. And I don't mean dumb, they can't speak. Dumb
as in they're not intelligent creatures. They are dependent.
Their safety, their ability to be alive, their livelihood is
dependent upon their shepherd. If you take a sheep to a brook
that is moving quickly, the sheep will snort the water up its nose
and drown. A sheep must be brought to still
waters. A sheep won't just eat anything,
but a sheep needs green pasture, doesn't he? He needs green pasture.
A goat will eat anything you hand to it, even a tin can. I've
seen one eat a tin can before. But a sheep's particular. It
has to have a shepherd that brings it to green pasture, to still
water. And that's what David's talking
about here. The Lord is, the Lord is my shepherd. Jehovah-rah-ah. The Lord is mine. Now I like
the is mine, because I'm reminded that in Song of Solomon, he says,
I am his and he is mine. This is a type of possession.
So the Lord owns us. He's purchased us with his own
blood and owns us as his own. And yet we get to look through
the glorious lens of the gospel and see that we own him as our
savior, as our king, as our shepherd. He's my shepherd. He's my shepherd. He is my Lord. And He's yours as well. He's
bought us, He owns us, and we're kept by His power, His purpose. Now we're gonna turn to eight
different places tonight. And I know that that's lengthy
compared to normal, but it's necessary. So our first place
we're gonna turn to is John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Jehovah-rah-ah, the Lord is my
shepherd. John chapter 10. And look at verse seven, our
Lord is speaking. Then said Jesus unto them again,
verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, don't you love
that the Lord says truly, truly before he speaks the truth? Everything
that proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus Christ was the truth,
and yet he affirms it by saying truly twice before he speaks.
I love that. Truly, truly, I say unto you,
I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for
to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the
good shepherd. Jehovah-rah-ah. The Lord is my
shepherd. The good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf
coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf scattereth
them, and scattereth the sheep. The wolf catcheth them, and scattereth
the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and
careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know
my sheep, and have known of mine, and the Father knoweth me. Even
so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. The Lord Jesus Christ by himself
is the door to the sheepfold. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
shepherd that we're speaking of. Jehovah is the shepherd. We see that everything necessary
for our salvation, everything necessary for us to be alive,
to be well, everything necessary for us to come to the knowledge
of the truth. Our shepherd provided everything
as he tends to his flock. I like that he calls us his little
flock. I read a, I put an article in
your bulletin, in our bulletin a few Sundays ago about Hawker's
take on a little flock, or maybe it was, I believe it was Spurgeon
actually. Spurgeon wrote, it was a message that he preached
on. And he said it was a term of endurement. Little, it wasn't
an insult. It was the same thing as calling your child my little
girl. She's my little girl. She's my
daughter. It's in love that he was speaking
little flock. That's how he addresses his church.
It's a pet name. The love that he has towards
his people is shown throughout all of scripture and the Lord
calls us his little flock because he is our great shepherd. Everything
required for our salvation, everything required to feed us the bread
of life, everything required for us to drink from the fountain
of living water, Christ Jesus himself provided as our faithful
shepherd. Reminded in Zechariah chapter
13, the sword of justice was to awake. And it says, awake,
O sword, and smite the shepherd. And against the man that is my
fellow, sayeth the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd. The Lord
Jesus Christ, as our shepherd, went to the cross of Calvary
for his sheep alone. He died in our stead alone. By himself, he purged the sheep's
sin, taking our sin unto himself. satisfying the justice of God.
That sword that awoke did smite the shepherd. The Lord himself
pierced the heart of his son with the sword of justice. His
soul was made an offering for sin so that you and I, you know
what we find? Still waters and green pastures,
day in and day out. The Lord is my shepherd, Jehovah-rah-ah. Now continue to hold your place
in Psalm as we turn because we're going to keep coming right back
to it. Psalm 23. Let's go back there. Verse two tells us he maketh.
me to lie down in green pasture. Somebody said, well, I don't
like the idea that God makes me do anything. If the Lord don't
make us do it, we won't do it. Do you agree with that? I know
that that's true in and of myself. The Lord must make us lie down
in green pasture. Can you imagine a sheep looking
at the greenest pasture they ever seen, the most peaceful
brook right beside of it? And the sheep's like, no, I'm
not going to lay down here. I'm not interested in this grass.
People say the grass is greener on the other side. Not when it
comes to the Lord's people, because we've tasted of the Lord, haven't
we? We've tasted of the good gift
of the Lord, his grace and his mercy. We've tasted of that grass
that he provided and we won't have any other. All the rest
of it's poison in our opinion. It's just, it's not going to
nourish us, is it? But the Lord nourishes his people
with his green grass. And he says, maketh me to lie
down in green pasture. He leadeth me beside the still
waters, which brings us to our second name of our Lord, Jehovah
Shalom. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord, our
peace. The Lord, our peace. He leadeth
me beside the still, the peaceful, the peaceful water. The waves
of the Lord's wrath was kindled upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And
therefore, wave after wave, he endured the wrath of God. He
endured the fury of his father. And because of that, all we have
is a peaceful stream to drink from." Isn't that glorious? We
come and take of the water of life freely because Jehovah Shalom,
the Lord is our peace. Turn with me to Judges chapter
six. Judges chapter 6, look at verse 19. Gideon went
in and made ready a kid and eleven cakes of ephah, a flower, an
epah, a flower. The flesh he put in a basket
and he put the broth in a pot and brought it out unto him under
the oak and presented it. The angel of God said unto him,
take the flesh and the eleven cakes and lay them upon this
rock and pour out the broth and he did so. The angel of the Lord
put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched
the flesh and the leavened cakes, and there rose up a fire out
of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes.
And the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. When Gideon
perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas,
O Lord God, for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face
to face, and the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee. Fear not, thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar unto
the Lord and called it what? Jehovah Shalom, the Lord, our
peace. And to this day is yet an offer
of the Abiezrites. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord, our
peace. How is it that there can be peace
with a man as wretched and vile as I? as an individual is wretched
and vile with you. How is it that the Lord hath
made peace with God? He did it by his own self, didn't
he? He devoured the sacrifice just as this angel of the Lord,
and we know who the angel of the Lord is, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ, isn't it? He gave Gideon a firsthand view of what was
gonna take place thousands of years later on the cross of Calvary.
They took the flesh, And he took the bread that was there, the
unleavened bread, representing the perfect deity of Christ,
representing his perfection. The scripture says a little leaven
leveled the whole lump, doesn't it? That's talking about sin.
Christ was perfect. He had no sin. He had no leaven.
And that was the unleavened cake that was there. And the meat
portion that was there, the kid, the young. the young kid, the
portion of the lamb that was given. We see that the fire came
up from the rock, didn't it? Representing the judgment of
God, coming upon that bread, which is Christ Himself, and
that lamb, which is Christ Himself. And what did it do? It devoured
it. What of the broth that He poured out? Was Christ Himself
not the one that said He was poured out like water? That His
bones are out of socket? In Psalm 22, the chapter right
before where we're looking at tonight, He talked about how
His poured out like water. That's what that represents,
is the Lord Jesus Christ was poured out. He was rent, his
body was bruised for you and I. He was under the wrath of
his father, just as we see the picture here, the fire of God's
wrath consuming this sacrifice. And what is left? Jehovah Shalom,
the Lord is our peace. There is peace now. There is
peace when we enter into the presence of God because of our
shepherd. because of the Lord being our
peace. For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us. There's no more petition
between you and God. Did you know that? If you're
his, there is nothing separating you from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate you. He
sees you as perfectly righteous because he is the sacrifice that
was consumed. He was made peace for us with
God. There's no more enmity between
us and God. There is just peace. There is just peace. Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We say things like that, and
I've preached this before and said that exact verse before,
but if I could really understand for a brief moment, if the Lord
would cause my heart to rest for a brief moment and realize
I have peace with God, the God of this universe, because of
what the Lord Jesus Christ did, what rest is that? There's no
other rest that you'll find in this world but that. This is
the only thing we can rest in and hope for, is that we have
peace with God, because the Lord Jesus Christ is our Jehovah Shalom,
peace with God. Philippians 4.7 tells us, the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds. And he tells us again how he's
gonna do it, through Christ Jesus. That seems to be the pattern,
doesn't it? Well, that's the only way that we can have the
goodness of the Lord. That's the only way we can have the mercy
of the Lord and the grace of God. That's the only way we can have
peace with God is to be found in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus
is our shepherd and Christ Jesus is our peace. Back to Psalm 23. Verse three tells us, he restoreth
my soul. That word restore means to turn.
That word restore means to heal. He heals us, which is the next
name of the Lord, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord, our healer. Christ
heals his elect. He healed them in the covenant
of grace before the foundation of the world, he healed them
by shedding his own blood on the cross of Calvary. He reconciled
them back to God. And he continually heals us by
bringing us back to him over and over and over. And he restored
us. He said, restore. He restores
us. To what? Unto his father. He
restored us unto his father. We have fellowship with him again.
Turn to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15, look at verse
22. Now this is the song of Moses. I want to preface this, what's
about to happen. This is the song of Moses that they're singing
whenever they just saw Pharaoh's army drowned in the Red Sea.
The Lord just closed up Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea and all of
them drowned. Now they're on the other side. We see the great deliverance
that the Lord had given them in chapter 14. And now in chapter
15, here we are in verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from
the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur.
And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters
of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was
called Marah. The people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall
we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him
a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were
made sweet. There he made for them a statue
and an ordinance. And there he proved them and
said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord,
thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will
give ear to his commandments and keep all of his statutes,
I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought
upon Egypt, the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. I am the Lord that healeth thee,
Jehovah Rapha. I am the Lord that healeth thee.
This is who he's talking about here. How did he heal? The same way he healed you and
I is the same way he healed the children of Israel. He said,
none of these diseases of the Egyptians are gonna come upon you if you
follow after my ordinances. Our Lord had to drink of the
bitter cup of sin and damnation for you and I to have the sweet
cup of the Lord's righteousness, to have the sweet cup of his
grace, to have the fountain of living water, The Lord Jesus
Christ had to drink of damnation. Do you remember whenever Zebedee,
he had a wife, and in the South we always say, bless her heart,
but that's, I don't know if that's a Northern thing or not, but
I'm prefacing what I'm about to say because she didn't know
what she was asking for. A lot like Peter, whenever he
would come and approach the Lord, but bless this lady's heart,
Zebedee's wife, he comes to the Lord and says, Lord, I have two
sons here, James and John. When you come into your kingdom,
let one of them sit on your right hand and one of them sit on your
left hand. Now, I love my children and I would like to think I wouldn't
request that of the Lord. I probably would if I had the
opportunity, but you understand what a foolish question this
really was of this person that they didn't know what they were
asking. She believed that he was God by asking the question, knew
that his kingdom was to come. Says, can one of them sit on
your right and one of them sit on your left? And he said, are you able to drink
of the cup that I drink of? He asked them that question.
Are you able to drink of the cup that I'll drink of? Are you
able to be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be
baptized with? What was he talking about? He
was talking about the cup of sin. He was talking about the
cup of damnation, the bitter dregs of God's wrath being poured
out upon him because of the sin that he was gonna be bearing
in his body because he was our substitute. He was talking about
the cup of Mara, the cup that's bitter. You remember whenever
Ruth came back, with Naomi. Naomi told her kinsmen after
her husband and sons had died, she said, call me Mara, don't
call me Naomi anymore, for the Lord hath dealt bitterly with
me. Our Lord was dealt bitterly with on the cross of Calvary.
And that's the tree that we see that's right here. We see that
it makes the water sweet. It's no longer a bitter water
that we are at. The cool, still brook that we
drink from is the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
The tree is the cross of Calvary. It's the tree of life, the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. That's what entered into the
water that makes it sweet for you and I to drink it. That's
what changed it from being Mara because He drank of all the bitterness.
He drank of all the wrath. He drank the fullness of the
wrath of God so that you and I would not have any bitterness. You and I would be healed. He
goes on to tell James and John, you shall indeed drink from this
cup and you shall indeed be baptized. What did he mean by that? All
of those that were placed inside the Lord Jesus Christ before
the foundation of the world, those whose name is written in
the Lamb's Book of Life, tasted of the wrath of God in Christ. They were baptized with him in
the fire of God's wrath. And now we are presented as perfectly
righteous before him. We died in Christ so that now
we live in Christ. The Lord is our healer. The Lord
is our healer, Jehovah Rapha. He restores our soul, doesn't
he? That's what he tells us right here. He restoreth my soul in
Psalm 23. The Lord shows us the tree, the tree of life. The Lord
himself restores our soul, heals us by his grace. The Lord is
my shepherd. The Lord is my healer. The Lord
is my peace. Now back to Psalm 23. The fourth one we find, In verse
three as well. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. The paths of righteousness. What's his name? Jehovah Sitkinu,
the Lord our righteousness. Turn with me to Jeremiah 23.
Jeremiah 23, verse one. Woe be unto the pastors that
destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord.
Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, against the pastors
that feed my people, ye have scattered my flock and driven
them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon
you the evil of your doing, saith the Lord. And I will gather the
remnant of my flock out of all countries, whether I have driven
them, and will bring them again to their folds. And they shall
be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over
them, which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more,
nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto
David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his
days," we know who he's talking about there, don't we? We know
exactly who he's speaking of. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name. whereby he shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. In my center margin, it actually
says Jehovah sitkin you. I don't know if you have that
in your center margin or not, but the Lord our righteousness is
his name. God saved. And even though we're
scattered about on the face of the earth, from every corner,
every language, every tribe, every nation will be represented
on the great day. Scripture says he gathers his
people. He calls his people and he keeps
his people. Why? Why? For his name's sake,
he cannot deny himself. That's what the scripture tells
us. You're in Jeremiah 23. Turn over, turn over just a couple
of pages to Jeremiah 33. All of those, all of those who
are in Christ Jesus, is who he's speaking of now. Jeremiah 33
16. In those days, shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
where she shall be called the Lord, our righteousness, Jehovah
said, Can you what is the Lord's name? Jehovah said, Lord has
many names, many names. But the one I'm speaking of right
now is the Lord, our righteousness, Jehovah Sit-Kin-Yu. Do you know
what his bride's name is? Jehovah Sit-Kin-Yu. We inherited
his name. Why? Because of his merits. Because
of him earning the right to give his name to whomsoever he died
for. Her name shall be called the
Lord, our righteousness. We are robed in His righteousness
now. He sees us as perfectly righteous.
Christ has been made unto us, and I'm gonna quote this a couple
of times tonight, probably. He's made unto us wisdom and
righteousness. We don't have any wisdom, do
we? We're not wise in and of ourself. Our confession is Christ
is all. His righteousness, He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Christ Jesus is all. He's all
in salvation for His people. He hath saved us. He hath redeemed
us, he hath called us, and he's keeping us, isn't he? He keeps
his people. Keeps them from their self, keeps
them from Satan, keeps them from the world. He keeps us. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. The Lord, our righteousness, does this. He is our shepherd,
he is our peace, he is our healer, and he is our righteousness.
Fifthly, In Psalm 23, we find that the Lord is our
provider. Psalm 21, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,
I shall not be in want of anything. Is there anything that you want
right now in salvation, other than the Lord Jesus Christ? The
answer is no. Is there anything that you want
more than to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ? No. We shall
not be in want of anything. Why? Because He hath made us
and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture, Psalm 100 tells us. The Lord is our shepherd. The Lord is our righteousness
and the Lord is our provider. He's provided everything we need.
We shall not be want in anything. In verse five, he says, he prepared
a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. That table is the prepared
body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? What is your
enemy? Now, sure, you can have enemies
in this life and be dealing with different circumstances, but
truly the enemy that you have, you look in the mirror at every
morning, don't you? And that's who he prepares a table before,
but we have the bread of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the bread
of life and the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have his blood.
This is the table that he has prepared before us. He's given
us all we need in salvation. He's provided all. And he says,
he anointed our head with oil. What does that mean? He's given
us His Holy Spirit. That's what the oil of gladness
is. The Lord Jesus Christ has given us His Spirit. Turn to
Genesis chapter 22. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord, our
provider. The Lord will provide. The Lord
hath provided. But this is where this is found,
Jehovah Jireh. Genesis 22 in verse seven. You
know this passage. We've preached from this several
times. This is the passage of Abraham. offering up his son,
Isaac. Genesis 22, verse seven says,
Isaac spake unto Abraham, his father, and said, my father,
and he said, here am I, my son. He said, behold the fire and
the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together,
and they came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham
built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac,
his son, and laid him upon the altar, laid him on the altar
upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And
he said, here am I. And he said, lay not thy hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thy only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up as a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And here's Jehovah Jireh. Abraham called the name of that
place Jehovah Jireh. As it is said to this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. What shall be seen?
What the Lord provided. We see the picture of Christ
Jesus carrying the wood for the sacrifice himself. And we see
the picture of the father carrying the fire and carrying the knife
to slay his son. Everything required for the salvation
of the Lord's people, the Lord carried in His own body and provided
for us. We see that He carried the wood
alone to this place and put away the sin of His people by His
own blood. By His own death, He hath put
away our sin. We see whenever Isaac asks, where
is the lamb? Abraham's answer was, God will
provide Himself. Now there's two-fold to that,
isn't there? Number one, anything that the Lord is going to be
pleased with, he's gonna have to provide it. But number two,
he is pleased with his son himself, himself. The Lord himself is
the sacrifice that the Lord was pleased with. He's only satisfied
with Christ. Everything required, God provided
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Jehovah Jireh means.
The Lord's provided everything. We are satisfied in what God
provided, what God is pleased with. So we've seen the Lord
is my shepherd. The Lord is my peace. The Lord
is my healer. The Lord is our righteousness.
And the Lord is our provider. Now, sixthly, in Psalm 23, Verse four says, yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou art with me. The Lord is present. The Lord
is present. Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is
present. Ezekiel is setting the gates,
is setting the gates up and giving inheritance unto the children
of Israel. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 48. This is where this
is found, Jehovah Shaman, in Ezekiel 48. The Lord is present
with his people. Thou art with me. This is the very last verse in
Ezekiel, verse 30, verse 35 says, It was round about 18,000 measures.
This is the city he's speaking of. And the name of the city
from that day shall be, the Lord is there. Now, if you have a
center margin, it'll tell you the same as mine, Jehovah Shammah.
The Lord is there. The Lord is present. David said,
thou art with me. If we could see If we could see
how soon, how soon we will be with the Lord, we would not fret
near as much as we do. If we could see that we are in
Him, the way that He declares we are in Him and how safe we
are, we would not fret realizing that He is ever present with
us. Did you know that He will never,
He said, I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.
What does that mean to you? What does that mean? That means
no matter where you go, no matter what you do, David said, if I
make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the
wings of the morning, if I ascend to the deepest part, behold,
thou art there. There is nothing, nowhere that
you can go, nothing that you can do to separate you from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. The Lord is present unto
his people. As the mountains encamp around
Jerusalem, the Lord encamps around his people. We can enter boldly,
we can enter boldly into our Father's presence who is always
present for his people. The Lord is there, Jehovah Shammah,
the Lord is present. The Lord is my shepherd, the
Lord is our peace, the Lord is our healer, the Lord is our righteousness,
the Lord is our provider, and the Lord is ever present to his
people. Now the seventh name we see is
found in Psalm 23 verse four again. Thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me. And in verse six, he says, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord is
our banner, Jehovah Nisi. Thy rod, thy scepter, thy sovereignty,
thy banner. Goodness and mercy by the grace
of God. Goodness and mercy is what we
have. The Lord is our banner. By grace, goodness and mercy
held up the law and Christ got the victory. Look with me in
Exodus 17. You probably preached eight messages
off of this instead of just one, but that's okay. I hope you don't
mind turning. We're getting a exercise tonight,
I suppose. Exodus 17 in verse eight. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose
us out men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
And Joshua did as Moses had said to him. and fought with Amalek.
And Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill, and
it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let his hand down,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon,
and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, one on one side and the
other on the other side. And his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited. and his
people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses,
write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the
ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek
from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nisi. For he said, because the
Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. Jehovah Nisi, the Lord, our banner. We see the picture of the rod
that Moses is holding. It's the same rod that David's
talking about. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Moses being a type of the law. The law had to be upheld,
didn't it? The law had to be upheld in order for our sin to
be put away. We see Joshua as a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ being born in the flesh that he was. Our flesh was the enmity against
God, and Christ had to become a man. He did so. We see that
Joshua goes out, our Joshua, to fight against this flesh,
and he gets the victory. Why? Because the law is upheld
in the sight of God. As long as Moses' hands were
up. As long as his hands were up. then they would get the victory.
But as soon as his hands started slipping down, so what happened?
Goodness and mercy had to prop them up, didn't they? Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Grace
and truth had to prop them up, didn't they? That's what the
Lord Jesus Christ did himself, is he took the law and satisfied
its demands before his father. And he didn't just prop it up,
he fulfilled it, didn't he? He upheld God's demands in every
way. The Lord is my banner. A banner
was used in time of war as an allegiance, showing what allegiance
you had. It was their flag. It was that
which, it's different than just the flag though. It was the seal.
It was the house seal of the one who was in charge. It was
their, the king's banner. Understand what I'm saying there.
So we have a country that is a democracy, but at that time
it wasn't a democracy. It was a dictatorship. The king,
the king was in charge and this was his banner. So what is he
saying? The Lord is my banner. His righteousness
is all that we confess. His wisdom is all that we confess.
It's Him that sanctifies, not ourselves. This is what we confess.
The Lord is our banner. He is what we confess. We see
that the staff on which the child of God leans is the person and
the work of Christ. The banner that we hold up is
the banner that He has called us to. And I've got comforting
news for us. Do you know what His banner is
for you? Love. His banner over me In Song of
Solomon 2.4, he brought me to the banquet house. His banner
over me was love. Banners declare what we stand
for or what we're against. You see people protesting all
the time, don't you? They have signs and different things like
that. They say, well, we're against this or we're for this. Think
about the banner that our Lord holds up over us is love. Do you love that? That's the
banner that he holds up over his people is love. He is our
banner. He is our Jehovah Nissi. The
Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is our peace. The Lord
is our healer. The Lord is our righteousness.
The Lord is our provider. The Lord is ever present. And
the Lord is our banner. Now the last one I want to look
at is in verse six of Psalm 23. Verse six says, Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. How are you going to
dwell in the house of the Lord forever? Is he talking about
this house? No, he said, if this earthen house, this tabernacle
be dissolved, we have a house not made with hands eternal in
the heavens. What is the house he's speaking
of? Oh, that I may be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but having his righteousness. to be found
in him. That's the house that we desire
to live in forever, isn't it? That's the only way we can live,
eternally. Nobody in hell lives eternally,
they die eternally. Do we see that? The Lord's people
live eternally in the Lord Jesus Christ. How can that be? Because the Lord hath sanctified
his people. To live eternally in the house
of God is to be sanctified. Jehovah Mechadishkim. The Lord that sanctifies thee. The Lord that sanctifies thee.
The Lord Jesus Christ himself hath sanctified his people. And
the last place we're gonna turn to is Exodus chapter 31. Exodus
31. Look at verse 12. Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak thou unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily, my
sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you
throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the
Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore,
for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth it shall
surely be put to death, for whosoever doeth any work therein, that
soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work
be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to
the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work on the
Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore, the
children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, who observe the
Sabbath throughout their generation, for a perpetual covenant. It
is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the Sabbath
day he rested and was refreshed. And he gave unto Moses, when
he had made an end of communing with him, the tables of testimony,
tables of stone written within the finger of God. The Lord is
the one that sanctified his people. You remember the Pharisees coming
up to the Lord, trying to trick him many times. He says, Lord,
your men are picking corn on the Sabbath day, or you're healing
on the Sabbath day, or you're doing this on the Sabbath. He
is the Sabbath day. He is Lord of the Sabbath. He
Himself is the Sabbath day. That's what the Sabbath day represented.
And what does the Lord tell the children of Israel here? I, I
will sanctify you. I will do this. He says, you
will keep the Sabbath. Have we kept the Sabbath? Have
we kept the Sabbath day of the week? Not one time, have we?
We can't keep it, and we know that. Christ Jesus is the end
of the lawful righteousness, say. Christ Jesus is our Sabbath.
In Him, we've kept the Sabbath. That's what this Sabbath represents,
is the Lord himself. It is the Lord that has sanctified
us. It's the Lord that's made us holy. Christ is our Sabbath. By his own will, think about
this, by his own will, he hath perfected, perfected. That word, we think of things
being perfect. There is nothing perfect on the
face of the earth. except for the Lord's people
in God's eyes. Did you know that? There is nothing perfect on the
face of the earth, but the Lord's people in God's eyes. Why? He
hath perfected them. He hath perfected them forever.
Them that are sanctified. What does sanctified mean? We're
talking about the Lord that sanctifieth thee. Jehovah Mechadishkim, the
Lord that sanctified thee. What does it mean to be sanctified?
It means you are holy in God's eyes. You have been made holy. It's not a parlor trick. It's not a magician's trick where
something has been swapped falsely and it appears to be something
else. He literally put away the sin of his people on the cross
of Calvary and now he has sanctified his people before his sight.
They're made perfectly. righteous. This is why I told
you I'd quote this multiple times. This is why he's our wisdom. He's our righteousness and he's
our what? Our sanctification and our redemption. The Lord
Jesus Christ is all of these things. He is our shepherd. He's
our peace. He's our healer. We will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever because he is our righteousness.
We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and goodness
and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life because
he's our provider. He's ever-present with us. He's our banner. And
He's our sanctifier. The title of this message, Jehovah
Is. He's all these things unto His
people, isn't He? So much more. We could sit all
night long and talk about it, I suppose. We would grow weary
from it, wouldn't we? We need to be reminded all the time. We
need to come and hear all the time. This is what the Lord is
to His people. The Lord's done it all. He's the sanctifier of
His people. Father, thank You for being all
unto us. Thank you for your isness, what you are, and what you have
made us to be. I pray that you would cause us
to find rest in you. In Christ's name, amen.